Management Team

Andrew T. Yang, Ph.D.

Dr. Andrew T. Yang was co-founder, chief executive officer, and chairman of Apache Design Solutions, a global leader in advancing low-power innovation since 2001, where he has led the company to consistent profitability and prestigious industry recognitions including Deloitte Technology Fast 50 company (2008), and Deloitte Technology Fast 500 company (2009). Over the past decade, Apache’s broad product portfolio has been consistently recognized with the industry’s top technology awards.

On August 2011, Apache was acquired by ANSYS, Inc. - a global leader in engineering simulation software and technologies for a broad spectrum of industries - as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Dr. Yang serves as president of the subsidiary and vice president and general manager of ANSYS. Prior to starting Apache, Dr. Yang was an active entrepreneur and EDA investor, founding Anagram and serving as chairman and CTO until its acquisition by Avant! Corporation, where he served as vice president of the analysis product division. Dr. Yang then became a lead investor in several successful technology companies including CADMOS Design Technology (now Cadence Design Systems), InnoLogic Systems (now Synopsys), Ultima Interconnect Technology (now Cadence Design Systems), and Mojave (now Magma Design Automation). Dr. Yang served as a senior advisor and board member for these companies.

Dr. Yang was a tenured professor at the University of Washington for a number of years, receiving several honors including the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award (1991). In 2010, Dr. Yang was recognized with the Distinguished Alumni Award of Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Yang holds a BSEE degree from University of California, Berkeley, MSEE and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Dian Yang, Ph.D.

General Manager and Senior Vice President of Product Management

Dr. Dian Yang serves as Apache Design Solutions' general manager and senior vice president of product management. Prior to joining Apache, Dr. Yang co-founded InnoLogic Systems, a provider of formal verification solutions for full-custom designs. After the acquisition of InnoLogic Systems by Synopsys, Dr. Yang continued to lead the adoption, integration, and advancement of the InnoLogic products as a senior director in the implementation business unit. Prior to InnoLogic Systems, Dr. Yang held various management positions in Silicon Graphics, Inc., LSI Corporation, and Avant! Corporation. Dr. Yang has extensive experience in development and management of EDA software, including memory compilers, static timing tools, DFT and functional verification solutions. He received his M.S and Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Shanghai University of Science and Technology.

Emily Chang

Chief Financial Officer

Emily Chang joined Apache Design Solutions as Corporate Controller in October 2004, during which time the company’s annual revenue grew significantly. As a Controller, her responsibilities included management of the company’s global finance organization, budget planning, mergers and acquisitions, Information Technology, Human Resource, Workplace Resources, and Operations. Ms. Chang has over 20 years of experience in financial management at both private and public companies, as well as in domestic and international management. Prior to Apache, Ms. Chang held senior financial positions at Cadence Design Systems, responsible for financial planning, SEC reporting, and audit and compliance processes. Prior to Cadence she held management position at Silicon Perspective Corporation (now Cadence Design Systems) where she helped the company successfully scales during its period of revenue growth. Ms. Chang holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in business from University of California, Los Angeles.

Vic Kulkarni

General Manager and Senior Vice President of RTL Business Unit

Vic Kulkarni joined Apache Design Solutions through the acquisition of Sequence Design where he served as the President and CEO. At Sequence, Mr. Kulkarni led the company to a leadership position in RTL Design for Power solutions, set the company's vision, and delivered power, timing and signal integrity products for nanometer systems-on-chip design. Mr. Kulkarni is now responsible for leading Apache’s RTL Business Unit as general manager and senior vice president. Mr. Kulkarni has over 33 years of experience in the EDA and semiconductor industries, including general manager and vice president of Avant!'s silicon business unit, responsible for silicon IP and process modeling tools. Prior to Avant!, Mr. Kulkarni held various engineering and marketing positions in Meta Software, CrossCheck Technology, VLSI Technology, National Semiconductor and Fairchild Semiconductor. Mr. Kulkarni is on the board of Si2, an industry organization, and serves on the editorial advisory board of EETimes-India. Mr. Kulkarni holds a MSEE in solid state electronics from the University of Cincinnati and B.Tech (EE) from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Craig Shirley

Vice President of Worldwide Sales

Craig Shirley serves as Apache Design Solutions' vice president of worldwide sales, bringing over 20 years of executive management and sales experience to Apache Design Solutions. Under his sales leadership, Apache has achieved a compound annual revenue growth rate of over 25% and record sequential bookings in all but one fiscal quarter. Prior to joining Apache, Mr. Shirley was vice president of worldwide sales and support at Jasper Design Automation, where he launched the Asia sales channel and secured Jasper’s first major European customer. Prior to Jasper, Mr. Shirley served as vice president of North America sales at Verisity Design (now Cadence Design Systems) where he architected and scaled the worldwide sales process that drove the startup to a $70 million company and the best performing IPO of 2001 (Electronic Business, June 2002). Prior to Verisity, Mr. Shirley held various sales and sales management positions at Avant! Corporation, Aspect Development, Quickturn Design Systems, Ready Systems Corporation and Viewlogic Systems. Mr. Shirley began his EDA career at Intergraph Corporation, as an applications engineer. Mr. Shirley graduated with honors from Auburn University with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering.

Aveek Sarkar

Vice President of Product Engineering and Support

Aveek Sarkar joined Apache Design Solutions as a Senior Applications Engineer. Since then he has taken on different roles and responsibilities inside Apache including director of product engineering. Prior to joining Apache, Mr. Sarkar worked for several years in Sun Microsystems on several generations of UltraSparc processors. Prior to Sun Microsystems, Mr. Sarkar held engineering positions at Cadence Design Systems and National Semiconductor. Mr. Sarkar holds a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, a MSEE from Oregon State University, and a MBA from Santa Clara University.